The present invention relates to a system with a separate unit for supplying wrapping material in strip form.
The present invention may be used to advantage on product manufacturing and packing systems in general, and, in particular, cigarette manufacturing and processing systems to which the following description refers specifically, but purely by way of example.
Cigarette manufacturing and processing systems--by which the term "processing" is intended to mean packing the cigarettes in packets of any type, and/or in cartons of any type, and/or in packs of cartons--normally comprise a number of machines fed with different types of strip material wound off reels normally mounted on the machines themselves, and which, on running out, are normally replaced with new reels by automatic strip change devices also mounted on the machines.
In view of the high operating speed of the machines, and consequently the large amount of strip material consumed, a major problem encountered on systems of the aforementioned type is that of supplying a relatively large number of reels to various parts of the system, while at the same time minimizing the amount of labour required, and keeping the floor space between the machines relatively clear, i.e. preventing an accumulation of new reels close to each machine.
Moreover, the automatic strip change devices on the machines are invariably not only expensive but also relatively cumbersome, and such as to at least partially affect the design of the machines themselves.
British Patent n. 2,145,046 and U.S. Pat. No. 4,764,078 relate to cigarette manufacturing and processing systems wherein the machines are connected to a centralized full-reel store by means of a traveling robot-operated store comprising a carriage supporting a given number of reels, and having a loading-unloading arm for picking up the full reels from the centralized store, unloading them on to the carriage, and transferring them to the strip change devices of individual machines.
Though the above known system does in fact provide for keeping the floor space between the machines clear, and for minimizing the amount of labour required, it fails to provide for eliminating the need to provide each machine with its own strip change device.
The latter problem is to some extent solved by the system described in British Patent Application n. 2,245,247 wherein the strip change devices are detached from the machines and grouped into a single strip change unit. Though this considerably simplifies both design of the machines and supply of the full reels, which in this case are fed to only one part of the system, it undoubtedly fails to provide for reducing the cost of the strip change devices--which are simply transferred from the machines to the separate strip change unit--or for solving the problems posed by supplying the full reels to each strip change device.